Suffolk Automotive Services
| Address: | 807 N Main St, Suffolk, VA 23434, USA |
| Phone: | +1 757-539-3289 |
| Site: | suffolkautoservice.com |
| Rating: | 4.3 |
| Working: | 8AM–6PM 8AM–6PM 8AM–6PM 8AM–6PM 8AM–6PM 8AM–1PM Closed |
Location
Photos 3
Reviews 4
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Ryan Elliott
Ive used Suffolk Automotive before to run a diagnostic on my old S-10 and the whole event was pleasant. The owner Jeff seemed to be pleasant to deal with and didnt charge too much for the testing I requested. Fast forward to about a month ago. I took in my 2000 S-10 Xtreme to the shop to have the clutch, slave cylinder, and rear main seal replaced because I didnt want to have to remove the transmission myself. I was charged $650 for labor and about $450 for parts...not bad except I priced the parts out from NAPA (where they get the parts from) and it would have cost me about $200 with no discounts. Deciding the 100% mark-up on parts was worth the piece of mind for the warranty they offer on their repairs I went ahead with using the shop. I had noticed oil on the back of my engine block and asked Jeff to have his guy see if he could identify the leak while the transmission was off. I dropped my truck off and received a call that afternoon saying it was ready for pickup. When I picked it up I was told then the flywheel was damaged and was also replaced (at an extra $100 charge without my consent). Additionally they isolated the oil leak to the valve cover and oil pan. The problem here is that if they would have called me after isolating the problem with the leak I could have told them to replace the oil pan gasket which would have taken an extra hour since the transmission was already off. Instead they waited for me to pick up the truck because they could then recharge me for the labor of pulling the transmission again. Now Im stuck dropping the transmission in my driveway (what I was trying to avoid in the first place) to replace the oil pan gasket two weeks later. Additionally my truck has a three bolt flange that holds the exhaust pipe to the exhaust manifold. These bolts have to be removed to remove the transmission (which the shop would have done for the clutch). When I attempted to remove the bolts at the start of the oil pan gasket replacement one of the bolts broke off from being cross-threaded by the shop during reinstallation of the transmission. I called Jeff to ask if he would remove the broken bolt since his tech was the one who cross-threaded it and he refused trying to say they did not disconnect the exhaust (which is physically impossible to leave on and remove the transmission). I decided not to argue and asked if he could get it out (at my expense) and also press in some new engine mount inserts (I decided to replace them while doing the oil pan gasket). He told me yes so I dropped the items off at his shop at 4 P.M. that day. He told me to call the next day and they would have everything ready. The next day I called at around 3:30 P.M. and they hadnt touched the engine mounts or exhaust. This would have taken one guy an hour to do all three parts. I will never take anything I own back to this shop and recommend you do the same. The only person worse than a scam artist is the one who will scam you with a smile on his face.
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Justin Hoskins
Ill sum this best I can so its not 3 pages. Took a car here to have 90k miles work done on it (timing elt, water pump). Price was good, I was worried that they are not ASE but the wife was happy. So it took them almost 3 days, whatever, then the wife picks up the car and the engine temp gets higher than its ever been. She takes it back, they say there is no problem. Same day it stops running and wont start again without shuddering. Wife is in chesapeake 40 ish minutes away getting ready for a job interview. She missed that, and work that night. She called and asked what they were going to do and they said nothing. I called and to not plagiarize the conversation I was told that its my job to get the car back to them even if this problem was their fault. I told them that I had kids getting off the bus and a wife stranded in another city, they told me I needed to choose between my kids or my wife and that the car getting back to them was not their problem. So after getting to my wife i took a look since I used to be a mechanic and also got some help. Turns out their was a load of air in the coolant system and after a while, and removing and replacing the radiator cap the problem is solved again. They had suggested a fuel pump. They also told my wife that parts and labor is warrantied for 24 months or 24000 miles but the paperwork that came with the receipt says 12, and 12000. The worst part about this is they lied to my wife from the get go about the warranty, and you dont tell a customer that they need to choose their kids or their wife, you dont have that right as a small business owner. They also gave zero care that I am a disabled veteran. Like that really matters though. Sorry for the length of this but I want others to know what they are getting into before they come to this place, I cannot recommend it at all. I will be taking my vehicles back to either Chesapeake or Newport news from now on cause I know the people there. I tried these guys out to support my local community. I wish they did a better job representing it. Thank you for reading and God bless.
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Iva Justplainiva
I am Justin Hoskins, wife and here we are a few months later...
I recently took my car into a different repair shop
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Michelle Clay
I want to thank Jeff and his staff for their super friendly service. I had taken my +100k mile SUV into the dealership expecting some significant maintenance, and was handed the "short-list" estimate of $4,300. Wondering whether we should even keep the car, we went to Suffolk Automotive for a second opinion. Jeff reviewed the quote, checked out our car, and gave us a prioritized list, letting us know what really needed to be done, what could wait, and what other more economical options were available. For the dealerships cost to replace the seals, tensioner, T/Stat, spark plugs, water pump, and timing belt, I was able to get all of the above, PLUS new driving belts, front brake pads, valve cover gaskets & a radiator. Jeff also suggested that instead of major repairs to the transmission, we should first try an additive to slow or fix the leak instead of the $1,200 repair the dealership suggested. We left Suffolk Automotive services happy, with plans to return in the future with any maintenance or repairs we have.
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